1. Don't mix enterprises with the kejiwaan

SO then why is it that in your enterprises you always fail? When you do Subud enterprises, very often, not always, the enterprises go downhill. And Bapak says the reason for this is very simple.

It is because in your enterprise you still try to do your enterprise with the kejiwaan. You think that in doing your enterprises you must still use the kejiwaan to work with. Bapak says that is completely untrue. If you do your enterprise you must use your heart and mind, you must do it with your heart and mind and not mix with it the kejiwaan.

Because the two are separate. The kejiwaan is the worship of God Almighty. When you do your enterprise you must work fully and the power of God is there to protect you. You do not use the power of God to succeed in your enterprise.

So, brothers and sisters, this is why, for example, when Bapak chose just now the Chairman of ISC, Bapak wants to be very clear that Bapak does not want this Chairman to get mixed up with the kejiwaan. You, as Chairman of ISC, have nothing to do with the kejiwaan; your job is to organize the Committee; and for that you have to use your heart and mind and leave the kejiwaan to itself, which is the work of the helpers, and that is why the helpers have their own Dewan to take care of the latihan of Subud members, so that there should not happen that Subud members have been doing the latihan for many years and still cannot receive; or that Subud members are opened, for example, and then left to themselves, so that a few months later they wonder what they are supposed to be doing because the helpers never pay any attention to them.

From Bapak's First Talk in Toronto - relevant recording: 79 YYZ 3.

2. Exercise heart and mind

AND so we come back again to this one thing that Bapak always advises us - to work in enterprises, which means anything that is work, that is movement, that is life, that uses our heart and mind and all our faculties. If our heart and mind are not exercised in the field where they should be used, then they are always groping around. They are groping here and there. They are groping, groping, groping all the time. O.K. - maybe we like to sit quietly and quieten ourselves. We think we are very quiet; and, indeed, we look very quiet. But inside, all the time, the heart is groping around. Maybe it gropes - it turns to this person: 'Why is this person like that? why is he doing that, why doesn't he do something else?' Or 'what does this person do - why does he do this or that?' Or maybe, 'I should do this or this or this, or something .'

So it is always groping, always looking for things. And it is this constant turning over of things which is wrong, which we should not be thinking about, or to which we should not be paying attention, which brings dirt into ourselves.

From Pewarta Special Supplement No. 7, page 144 - relevant recording: 7,7 PAR 3.

3. Enterprises a training ground

SO that you should understand that enterprises are not purely directed towards commercial undertaking, but ,rather they are a training ground to get Subud members used to receiving the guidance of God Almighty, both in the kejiwaan and also in their outer life.

So that to do enterprises for us is not only for the purposes of this world - it is also to be able to carry out the word of God, or the command of God in this world.

From Bapak's talk in Mexico - relevant recording: 77 MEX 2.

4. Problems of enterprises should not be referred to helpers

BAPAK hopes that the Organizational Councilors will truly fulfil Bapak's suggestion that each national branch should create a group of experts in every field; for example, experts in industry, in agriculture, in building, in business etc.

The purpose of this is that the experts who work in this group can give guidance and leadership to those members who wish to set up and work in enterprises. Don't let it happen, as in the past, that the problems of enterprises are referred to the helpers for advice, because, apart from anything else, this will mean that the helpers will be overloaded with problems which are not their responsibility.

The right way is for the problems of enterprises to be referred to this group of experts for their advice, so that they can make any surveys and studies that are required.

From Bapak 's Message to Councilors' Meeting at Arnhem,23 September 1977.

5. Right way of working

BAPAK wants to explain once again so that you don't misunderstand. If some of you are maybe professional people, doctors or lawyers or something like that, or teachers who happen to have a very good job with the government or something like that, it doesn't mean that you then necessarily have to leave this and set up in business on your own, because what you are doing can already be regarded as an enterprise, depending on how you do it. But there are many people who are not yet in this position, who still are looking for an opportunity, or who are still not working in what they consider a good situation - and for those people Bapak really advises them to try to find a way to start enterprises, because this will give them a way, first, whereby they can really begin to stand on their own feet. And secondly, it gives them an opportunity to learn to tell the difference between the closeness of their mind and their nafsu, and also the closeness between their mind and their bodies and the power of Almighty God.

If they then eventually succeed in making a profit or getting some fruits from this work that they have done, that they really earn the fruits of their labors, then those fruits will be not forbidden fruits, but allowed fruits - in other words, fruits that are really right for them to possess.

What Bapak means by this can be explained very easily. You have often heard of people winning the first prize in a lottery. But Bapak asks you: 'Have you ever heard of someone who has won the first prize in a lottery who is able to benefit from what he has won?' That if you look again after a long time you can say: 'Yes, he has really made use of that money in the right way', so that he has earned the benefit of it. In general, the money is lost very quickly. It is the same with people who maybe work and in some way get rich very very fast. As a general rule, that money also they cannot benefit from and it very quickly disappears. But if we get the fruits of the work that we have done in enterprises according to the guidance of the power of God, those fruits even be they little - though, of course, Bapak hopes that there will be lots - but even if they are little, they will be fruits that are truly ours by right. That is, they become our permanent benefit, so that there is a real hope that they will not only benefit us, but will be inherited by our descendants.

From Pewarta Special Supplement No. 5, page 93 - relevant recording: 77 OSL 4.

The End